Top 10 favorite anime of 2014

I watched quite a lot of anime this past year, moreso than I have in quite a while. Here's my top ten

Space Brothers (Uchuu Kyoudai)

Space Brothers is an amazing story. It focuses on the lives of two brothers who, as children in the year 2006, witness a ufo land on the moon. From that day forward they aspire to become astronauts but as life tends to happen the older of the two loses sight of his dream and goes on to do other things, meanwhile his younger brother steadfastly continues towards his dream. It isn't till many years later when the younger brother, Hibito, finally becomes an astronaut; and after the older brother, Mutta, is fired; that Mutta remembers his dream from long ago.

The characters in this show are incredibly lovable, and realistic. Not to mention that it touches on many subjects such as ALS and it's treatment, without being cleche or out of the blue. I totally recommend checking it out.

FREE! - Iwatobi Swim Club

Free! is another amazing show I watched this year. On the outside it looks like your typical slice of life or sports anime. But it's all that and more. The characters are all very different and interesting and they have one of the best friendships I've ever seen in an anime. Not to mention this show is FULL of fanservice for the ladies! (just look at those abs) This is a nice fun break from the drama and heartbreak of my next entry.

Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyoujin)

This show. Oh man. Attack on Titan is set in, what at first appears to be your typical medieval setting, however all of humanity is contained within three concentric rings of giant stone walls, protecting the people from giants called titans that hunt and consume human beings. The story itself follows a young man named Eren Jager, who wishes to destroy all titans so that he and his friends can finally see the outside world. There's not much more I can get into without entering the realm of spoilers but hoo boy this anime. It's tragic, and is known to use blood like other anime use cherry blossom petals. The characters are amaingly human and well written and will break your heart all over the place. A must watch if I ever saw one!

Sword Art Online (and Sword Art Online 2)

Sword Art Online (and it's second season) attempts to answer the question, what if when you died in an mmo you died in real life. Personally I consider it a bit of a psycological horror, because just considering that situation is horrifying. However the show does break up the drama/horror quite a bit with well written characters and an adorable romance that I love to death. The cutesy-romancey episodes aren't too bad in my opinion and even those usually still contain a fair amount of drama to them.

Tokyo Ghoul

Yet another great horror anime, this is one of the most accurate to the manga series I've seen in a while. The series follows Ken Kaniki, a completely normal, if a bit socially awkward guy, who survives a brutal attack from a ghoul by the name of Rize Kamishiro. Ghouls are seemingly normal humans who can only survive by eating human flesh and are completely incapable of surviving on normal food (and in fact find it quite disgusting.) As a result of the attack Kaneki is rushed to the hospital and is only saved by recieving organs from Rize (who was killed in a freak accident during the attack) This in turn causes Kaneki to become half ghoul himself.

Sailor Moon Crystal

Sailor Moon Crystal is a reboot of the 90s era classic. It follows the storyline of the manga much more closely than the 90s version and is one of the first simulcasts ever released in the us (with subtitles). While the monthly episodes are not that great animation-wise. The dvd version is dramatically improved.

Hunter x Hunter

(also this picture lies, half of these guys are offscreen after the first arc)

Finally coming to somewhat of a close (for now) as they've caught up to the current events in the manga, this 2011 reboot of a great story is something everyone should watch. Following Gon, a 10 year old boy with the goal of becoming a professional hunter and tracking down his missing father, it's impossible to not fall in love with his positive attitude and determination. Personally I can't wait to see the show start back up.

Kill La Kill

While the obvious fanservice and skimpy outfits would typically make me want to avoid this kind of show, I gave it a shot. It was completely worth it. The show makes fun of itself at every turn and is actually pretty empowering. While I will warn there's some pretty serious psycological abuse (and implied sexual but not really onscreen) This is also a must watch

DRAMAtical Murder

Ok, hear me out, I'll admit this show makes almost no freaking sense if you've never played the game (and I'll warn you know it's totally a gay dating sim) I loved this anime. It follows the entire path of the game including every romance path (without the sexy parts) which is great because if you don't replay the game over and over you miss a good portion of the story itself. I'd definatly say this isn't a show for everyone, but if you enjoy pretty guys who are ambiguously gay (or TOTALLY gay in the game) go for it it's awesome. (also the soundtrack is amazing)

Eden of the East - Paradise lost

OH MY GOD, so I watched the series Eden of the East when it first came out, and waited and WAITED for the movie. Only to completely forget about it by the time Paradise Lost came out. When I discovered it was on netflix I freaked out! I absolutely LOVE Eden of the East and highly suggest everyone go check it out because it is amazing. (also actual english speakers for the english speaking parts! Why doesn't EVERYONE do this?)

So I realize I tend to ramble on a bit, but here's my top ten anime I watched in 2014. Hope you enjoy! And while I suck at summarizing things, I hope you check out a few of these at least!